A Deep Dive into ”Applying the Silva Method: For Improved Intuition, Creativity and Focus” BOOK REVIEW PART 1

“Once we learn to use our mind to train it, it will do some astounding things for us, as you will soon see.” Jose Silva (August 11, 1914-February 7, 1999) author of The Silva Mind Control Method.

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast I’m Andrea Samadi and like many of you listening,  have been fascinated with learning and understanding the science behind high performance strategies to increase our results in our schools, sports, and modern workplaces.

As we are in the midst of holiday season here with Thanksgiving this past week in the US, and Christmas fast approaching, we will be narrowing our focus here on the podcast and resuming interviews in the New Year.  Until then, this episode will launch a series where I’ll be taking us on a deep dive into the benefits of developing a meditation practice. While I’m sure those who tune into this podcast already have a practice in place, I wanted to cover a meditation method that I came across years ago, that our last interview, with Dr. Hasan Ibne Akram reminded me about.

The goal of this series is to help all of us to reduce stress with this practice, but also to see if we can learn something new, and refine our practice for those who work in our schools to improve learning, in our sports environments for improved focus and concentration towards a specific goal, and in the corporate workplace for ideas to improve creativity and focus. We will begin this series reviewing Jose Silva and Philip Miele’s The Silva Mind Control Method[i] that’s based on the Revolutionary Program by the Founder of the World’s Most Famous Mind Control Course.

Ch 1: Using Our Mind in Special Ways

This course is something I came across while working in the seminar industry, and while interviewing Dr. Hasan Ibne Akram, on our last EPISODE #260[ii], he reminded me of Jose Silva’s program, that helped him with his self-esteem as a teenager, in addition to his studies, and a few other areas of his life, and this reminded me that I had come across Jose Silva’s work years ago. I’d actually forgotten about this book, and many of the techniques we learned that were adaptations of Silva’s work, and I thought that since meditation is helping so many people around the world, and it’s now mainstream in our schools, with athletes, and in the corporate world, it would be fascinating to look closer at Jose Silva’s Method, to see if it could help all of us to enhance our current meditation practice, myself included. Then I dove into The Silva Method, and realized his work is going to need to be broken up over a few episodes, like we did with The Think and Grow Rich[iii] book review, just to make it applicable for all of us, and give each chapter careful consideration as we look to see what parts of The Silva Method, could help us to improve our own lives.  I wanted to release this episode last Friday, but in order to cover this topic properly, I knew I had to review the Silva Method thoroughly myself, do exactly what he instructs us to do, and not cut any corners. So this weekend, instead of recording, I reviewed and practiced the strategies in the first three chapters of this book, making more connections to past episodes, and increasing my learning and understanding before sharing these ideas with you.

If you listened to our episode #258 with Friederike Fabritius, on her new book, The Brain-Friendly Workplace, I asked her what science has to say about those flashes of insight that we ALL have access to for improved creativity and performance, and she explained that “when you are relaxed, your brain waves slow down to the alpha state.”

Friederike further explained that we can measure these brain waves with EEG scans and that at moments of insight, or those AHA Moments, the brain has “gamma oscillations” that can be trained and measured that she called “The Gamma Insight Effect.”

• After speaking with Friederike, I wondered HOW we could ALL train our brain to reach these levels to gain those flashes of insight on demand, or at least more often, to help us with our lives and work?

Whenever I’ve had a flash of insight about something, it’s often during times where I’m relaxed (during a massage, in the shower, or during meditation) but they happen when I’m not expecting them, so I’ve learned to write them down, to see I can learn the meaning behind them, and determine if the insight is useful.

• Have you had flashes of insight? When do they happen for you? How do you make use of what you are seeing?

Next, I remembered our interview #148[iv] with Dr. James Hardt and his Biocybernaut Alpha One Training that helped people (like Tony Robbins)  to access the zone, or peak performance, on demand, and increase those heightened levels of awareness for reduced stress and increased productivity.

• I wondered if there was a way we could do this ourselves, without having to pay the money to attend a training somewhere.

Dr. Hasan spoke about attending Dave Asprey’s 5 Day 40 Years of Zen Training[v], that was life-changing, but he also mentioned The Silva Method on EPISODE #260, that’s designed specifically to help us to tap into the Alpha (deeply relaxed brain state) with other parts of the program that could train us to reach the Theta State (relaxed consciousness, deep meditation, light sleep, REM state) and the Delta State where we are in a deep sleep.

Dr. Hasan Ibne Akram, who has successfully built 7 companies, believes that the Silva Method launched his mind to a whole new way of thinking and spoke about how Einstein and Edison would gain flashes of insight from relaxing their minds in a certain way, something that we ALL have access to do. Dr. Hasan is a huge believer in The Silva Method, that shows us how to access these creative brain states, and then give us some ideas of what to do with them once we are there. Jose Silva himself believed that once we learn how to use the tools in his program, that we all have the ability to become geniuses.

Napoleon Hill even wrote about this in his best-selling book, Think and Grow Rich, when he said that a better definition of genius “is a man who had discovered how to increase the intensity of thought to a point where he can communicate with sources of knowledge not available through the ordinary rate of thought.”

Read that quote a few times and keep thinking.

• How could YOU benefit from diving a bit deeper into your meditation practice?

We have covered meditation on this podcast, beginning with Dr. Dan Siegel all the way back to EPISODE #28[vi] where we spoke with Dr. Siegel about something he calls Mindsight, or seeing the mind in another person, and he says this is the “basis for social and emotional intelligence.” Then on EPISODE #60[vii], we dove deeper into his Wheel of Awareness Meditation, and the science behind a meditation practice, which is evident to anyone who goes to www.pubmed.gov and types in the word “meditation” as they will see over 9,000 results showing that mindfulness and meditation clearly improves our health and wellness. Dr. Dan Siegel has mentioned the research often with his Wheel of Awareness Meditation, that “integrates the structure and function of the brain.” By integration, he meant moving towards well-being.

But with ALL of these episodes, we’ve focused on WHAT meditation does (improves mental and physical health and well-being) but I’ve never covered exactly HOW to access these altered states of consciousness, or what to do when we get there, mostly because until I read Jose Silva’s book, I had no idea what I was doing when I was meditating. I’d been doing many of the exercises in Silva’s Program, that I had learned from different seminars and sources over the years, without fully understanding exactly what I was doing, and noticed I could use some improvement with my own practice.

When Friederike Fabritius said that accessing these different brain states could be trained, and then suddenly Dr. Hasan mentioned HOW he trained his brain all those years ago, I thought it was time to take a closer look at our brain states. My goal with this episode is to help me to be more intentional with my meditation practice, and then share what I learn with you here. Just keep an open mind. As I share my insights with you from each chapter, see how the ideas could help you to improve YOUR practice, and perhaps give you some new insights along the way.

On PART 1 of this book review we will cover:

✔ CH 1- Using More of Our Mind in Special Ways: An Introduction to the Silva Mind Control Method

✔ What this program has done for others.

✔ Ch 2- Meet Jose

✔ Ch 3- How to Meditate: A review of the brain states (BETA,ALPHA,THETA,DELTA).

✔ How to quickly access the ALPHA STATE to improve creativity, and intuition.

✔ Using A Mental Screen in Your Mind for Heightened Visualization

✔ How to Help Yourself and Others With this Practice

 

What This Program Has Done for Others:

For this episode, #261, we will begin our DEEP DIVE into Jose Silva’s Mind Control Method, used by over 10 million students around the world, to see if we can all use his work, that’s based on accessing altered states of consciousness, to train our brain in ways where school just never taught us. The only reason I had heard about Jose Silva’s Method, was that when I sold seminars for Bob Proctor, back in the late 1990s, many of the seminar attendees asked me if I had heard of Silva’s Training. Over the years, I learned that parts of Silva’s Methods were used in many of the seminars I had attended in the personal development industry, but I had never looked at the entire program as Jose Silva had written it. Much like I had only read parts of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich book, until I decided to review it myself on this podcast earlier this year. We will be going through the chapters together, and see what resonates with our current practice enough to dive deeper into.

Now, there are two ways you could learn about these concepts. You can either learn with me here on the podcast, or, if you want to go deeper, you could pay to do one of the trainings like Dr. Hasan Akram did (with Dave Asprey), or what Tony Robbins did, with Dr. James Hardt and his Biocybernaut Alpha One Training, or even dive deeper into The Silva Method as this Method is now called The UltraMind System[viii] that you can purchase through Mind Valley which is where the program exists today.  It’s here that the CEO of Mind Valley, a New York Times Best-Selling author himself, Vishen Lakhiani[ix] was asked to be the face of Jose Silva’s work, just a few years after he passed away.

PART 1 of My Review of the Silva Method:

Remember when Dr. Hasan held up his copy of Jose Silva’s book, from our last episode? The book is actually written as a book within a book, as the outside chapters 1 and 2, and 17-20 were written by Philipe Miele, who orients us to Jose Silva, and the millions of graduates who have benefitted from the program, while the inside of the book consists of the techniques we will learn, written by Jose Silva.

We will learn more about the type of man Jose Silva was, but I have to clarify the title of the program, that is based solely on learning to control our mind for “the betterment of mankind.” (Page 6, The Silva Mind Control Method). The program cannot be used in any other way and is not meant to be used to “control” anyone, other than our own minds. As we saw with the quote we opened up with, once we can learn how to use our mind, it will do some astounding things. Throughout this series, we will see how it can be used to improve our own intuitive and creativity skills, solve large and small problems that we might have in business and in life, and will even uncover ways we can use the tools to improve our own health, or the health of others. Just keep an open mind as we go through the chapters, and I’ll show you how I’ve either used the tools myself, or have seen them being used by others for results that cannot be denied.

What This Program Has done for Others

Now, don’t just take my word for the deep work we will uncover in the next few episodes, here’s what some of the leading experts have said about Jose Silva’s Method as well as what Jose Silva himself has said that his program has done for others.

✔ A marketing company used it to create 18 new products.

✔ 14 Chicago White Socks players used it to boost their scores.

✔  Celebrities have used it and credit Jose Silva for improving their focus and creativity.

✔  Colleges and universities have used it to help students study less, but learn more.

To access the research[x] that has been done on this program to date, I’ll link it in the show notes. The late Dr. Wayne Dyer has said that “anything with the name Jose Silva as the author has my vote before I open to page one. Read it with a pen for underlining.”

The Founder of Precious Moments, Jon Butler said that “Any CEO who is not using altered states of mind is at a competitive disadvantage.” (from Vishen Lakiani’s Masterclass).[xi]

As you go through this book review with me, think of where The Silva Program could help you. There will be some areas that will resonate with you, that you can practice and refine, and others that you can set aside for a later time. At the end of each of these review episodes, I’ll have a section for you to put the ideas into action with clear examples of how I have used these exercises.

REMEMBER:

“When a person learns to function mentally at this deeper level, creativity is enhanced. Memory is improved and a person is better able to solve problems.” (Jose Silva).

Ch 2- Meet Jose Silva

What’s crazy for me to see, looking back at Silva’s work, is that he began The Silva Method, with his children while he was working on a way to improve learning. Like any parent, he wanted the best for his own children and their academics. But Jose Silva went above and beyond what most of would do for this to occur.

He took his knowledge of working with radios and electronic circuitry, (what he did for his work that he excelled at) and combined this knowledge with the fact that we know that the mind generates energy, and developed a program that he hoped would help the brain to work more efficiently. He tested his ideas on his children.  Imagine Jose Silva, as a young man, with young children, who would work his job in radio repair until 9pm every night, come home, eat dinner, help put his children to bed, and then when his house was quiet, he would go on to study until midnight. He would learn the ideas that would eventually help his own children improve their grades, extending the course to other children, who achieved even better results with his program, as he refined and improved it along the way, and then within 3 years, developed the course that we know today. This is where The Silva Method began, that has now been validated by over 500,000 experiments, providing the results that no one could ignore.

Ch 3- How to Meditate: A review of the brain states (BETA,ALPHA,THETA,DELTA).

A Review of the Brain States:

Beta Brain States: are where most of us spend our waking time, in normal and alert consciousness with brain waves at 15-30 cycles/second. It’s here that we can feel the stress and anxiousness of daily life, so finding ways to offset this stress can be helpful.

***Alpha Brain State: where our brain slows down and we begin to feel healing, a sense of relaxation, or bliss, at around 9-14 cycles/second with our brain waves. This brain state is where most of Jose Silva’s Programs are centered around.

Theta Brain State: involves deeper relaxation with access to problem solving while these waves slow down to 4-8 cycles/second. If we can train our brain to stay awake here, we will be able to access heightened levels of creativity and intuition for solving problems. In chapter 7 of the book, Jose Silva covers Creative Sleep. He says “Understand a Man’s Dreams, and You Understand the Man”  

Delta State: our brain waves slow to 1-3 cycles/second while we are in deep dreamless sleep.

How Do We Use the Silva Method to Access the Alpha State Where All the Magic Begins?

STEP 1: HOW TO ACCESS THE ALPHA STATE:

YOU CAN ACCES THE ALPHA STATE WHEN YOU FIRST WAKE UP, BEFORE BED, and ANY OTHER TIME YOU HAVE 15 MINUTES TO RELAX YOUR MIND. The Alpha State is the easiest state to access as we will already be in this state the first 5 minutes after we wake up.

Jose Silva suggests:

Jose Silva suggests the 40 Day Technique to guarantee you are at the Alpha Level where you begin by counting backwards from 100 to 1 for 10 mornings, then you can count from 50-1 for the next 10 mornings, then from 20-1 for 10 mornings, and then 10-1 until you get to 5 to 1. I’m currently in the first 10 days of counting backwards from 100-1 to allow myself to drift deeper into Alpha in the morning as well as before I go to sleep at night. I noticed that I’m more focused on my morning meditation, whereas before, I was just sitting there, not as focused as I know I could have been. I practice Dan Siegel’s Wheel of Awareness Meditation each morning, and going into the Alpha State FIRST, has deepened my brain state into the Alpha level, where I no longer drift off when I hear a noise or something.

PUT THIS INTO PRACTICE: Begin using the 100-1 countdown to at night, in the morning, or whenever you plan to access the alpha level to begin to improve your current practice.

I’m in my first few days of practicing this method before sleep, and the first couple of nights, fell asleep before I could get to 1. I’ll keep trying, as I’d like to get to the point where I can just count from 5-1 to access the Alpha State, like Jose Silva suggests. If you are as serious about accessing this level as I am, I suggest keeping a note card next to your work place to check off where you are in this process. After 10 days, you can progress to the next step, until you are able to access the alpha state from counting from 5-1.

STEP 2: ONCE YOU REACH THE ALPHA STATE, THEN WHAT?

Next, You will learn to use a Mental Screen for Heightened Visualization

Once you have accessed the Alpha State, Silva reminds us:  

 

 

Central to Jose’s Silva Method of Mind Control is with the power of visualization, and he says “right from the beginning, from the very moment you reach your meditative level (what he calls accessing the Alpha State), you must learn to practice visualization. The better you learn to visualize, the more powerful will be your experience with Mind Control.”

He also believes that his process goes far beyond what many of us have come across with other meditation programs, and as I go through each chapter, I’ll leave it to you to pick and choose which parts of his program resonate with you to use and practice, but this part is important to master for EVERYTHING else we will be learning.

PUT THIS INTO PRACTICE: When you close your eyes, what do you see? Raise your eyes up a bit (about 20% upwards above the horizon of what you see). Is it black, or can you use your mind to create things? Begin with simple things like an orange or an apple. This takes time and practice. This mental screen will help you in many ways as we move through different lessons, and is important, but don’t be tied to what you think you should see. We are all at different stages of learning. I started seeing things on the screen of my mind starting in my late 20s, and things would flash sometimes when I was relaxed. I never did have control over what I was seeing. It just happened, and I would either know what I was seeing, or be wondering “what on the earth is that” so I’m hoping that with time, effort and practice, I will gain better control over what I’m able to visualize, so I can put it to better use.

STEP 3: Now Utilize This Power

With time and practice, it will be this screen that you will learn how to help yourself and others. You begin with creating simple things, until you are ready to solve small problems in your daily life, from work, to health, and improve learning/creativity.

PUT THIS INTO PRACTICE:

Just begin here with playing around with what you can create on the screen of your mind in the Alpha State. If you do nothing else, other than these 3 steps, you will experience what William Wordsworth called “a happy stillness of mind.” (Page 27, The Silva Method).

Think of this as a journey within your mind. Each day you will be getting better and better, mentally stronger and stronger, and remember the quote we opened this episode with?

“Once we learn to use our mind to train it, it will do some astounding things for us, you will soon see.” (Jose Silva)

TO REVIEW PART 1 of THE SILVA METHOD:

We covered:

✔ CH 1- Using More of Our Mind in Special Ways: An Introduction to the Silva Mind Control Method

✔ What this program has done for others.

✔ Ch 2- Meet Jose Silva and learned about his passion for helping others to improve their ability to learn.

✔ Ch 3- How to Meditate: A review of the brain states (BETA,ALPHA,THETA,DELTA).

✔ How to quickly access the ALPHA STATE to improve creativity, and intuition  using the countdown Method.

✔ Using A Mental Screen in Your Mind for Heightened Visualization

✔ It Will Be This Screen That We Will Use to Help Yourself and Others in Future Chapters.

 

SOME FINAL THOUGHTS:

As we close out this episode, I wanted to share that while there are many programs out there, and I’m not here to say that one is better than the next.  If you have studied the father of mindfulness, Jon Kabat-Zinn, you’ll recall that he reminds us that we are already perfect, and that mindfulness is not about “attaining a certain state, (that brings us to this new level of perfection) but that we are already whole and perfect.” Whatever program you are doing now, see if there’s anything we cover that interests you to dive deeper into to further enhance what you are already doing.

And with that, I’ll post the topics in upcoming episodes on the show notes, and I’ll see you in a few days, with EPISODE #162 on Dynamic Meditation and Improving Our Memory.

COMING NEXT:

Episode #162 we will cover

✔ Ch 4- Dynamic Meditation

✔ Ch 5- Improving Memory

 

Episode #163

✔ Ch 6-Speed Learning

✔ Ch 7-Creative Sleep

 

Episode #164

✔ Ch 8-Your Words Have Power

✔ Ch 9-The Power of Imagination

✔ Ch 10-Using Your Mind to Improve Your Health

 

Episode #165

✔ Ch 12- You Can Practice ESP

✔ Ch 13- Form Your Own Practice Group

✔ Ch 14- How to Help Others

Episode #166

✔ Ch 16- A Checklist

✔ Ch 17- A Psychiatrist Works with The Silva Program

✔ Ch 18- Your Self-Esteem Will Soar

✔ Ch 19- Mind Control in the Business World

✔ Ch 20- Where Do We Go from Here?

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REFERENCES:

[i] The Silva Mind Control Method https://silvamethod.com/

[ii] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #260 with Dr. Hasan Ibne Akram on “Breaking Down the Mindset of the Million Dollar Monk” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/serial-entrepreneur-and-computer-scientist-hasan-ibne-akram-pd-d-on-breaking-down-the-mindset-of-the-million-dollar-monk/

[iii] Think and Grow Rich Book Review with Andrea Samadi

 Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #190 PART 1 “Making 2022 Your Best Year Ever”  https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-1-how-to-make-2022-your-best-year-ever/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #191 PART 2 on “Thinking Differently and Choosing Faith Over Fear”  https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-2-how-to-make-2022-your-best-year-ever-by-thinking-differently-and-choosing-faith-over-fear/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #193 PART 3 on “Putting Our Goals on Autopilot with Autosuggestion and Our Imagination”   https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-3-using-autosuggestion-and-your-imagination-to-put-your-goals-on-autopilot/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #194 PART 4 on “Perfecting the Skills of Organized Planning, Decision-Making, and Persistence” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-4-on-perfecting-the-skills-of-organized-planning-decision-making-and-persistence/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #195 PART 5 on “The Power of the Mastermind, Taking the Mystery Out of Sex Transmutation, and Linking all Parts of Our Mind” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/think-and-grow-rich-book-review-part-5-on-the-power-of-the-mastermind-taking-the-mystery-out-of-sex-transmutation-and-linking-all-parts-of-our-mind/

Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #196 PART 6 in Memory of Bob Proctor on “The 15 Principles Behind Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich Book” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-neuroscience-behind-the-15-success-principles-of-napoleon-hill-s-classic-boo-think-and-grow-rich/

 

[iv] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #148 with Dr. James Hardt on his “Biocybernaut Alpha Training” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/dr-james-hardt-of-biocybernaut-alpha-training-on-change-your-brain-waves-change-your-life/

[v] https://40yearsofzen.com/dave/

[vi] Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #28 with Dr. Daniel Siegel on “Mindsight, the Basis for Social and Emotional Intelligence” https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/clinical-professor-of-psychiatry-at-the-ucla-school-of-medicine-dr-daniel-siegel-on-mindsight-the-basis-for-social-and-emotional-intelligence/

[vii]Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast EPISODE #60 on “The Science Behind a Meditation Practice with a Deep Dive into Dr. Daniel Siegel’s Wheel of Awareness Meditation https://andreasamadi.podbean.com/e/the-science-behind-a-meditation-practice-with-a-deep-dive-into-dr-dan-siegel-s-wheel-of-awareness/

[viii] Mind Valley The Silva UltraMind System https://www.mindvalley.com/ultramind/sales?utm_source=google-paid&utm_medium=ocpm&otag=%5Bgg-ads%5D-%5Bvsl%5D-%5B17753276300%5D-%5B%5D-%5B%5D-%5Bsums%5D&gclid=Cj0KCQiAsoycBhC6ARIsAPPbeLvitYEzBdYZUiIjVD6DfQhvBjckA4peckfGlr0NpnXnvs0dK2jXTLEaAiZoEALw_wcB

[ix] Mind Valley The Silva UltraMind System https://www.mindvalley.com/ultramind/sales?utm_source=google-paid&utm_medium=ocpm&otag=%5Bgg-ads%5D-%5Bvsl%5D-%5B17753276300%5D-%5B%5D-%5B%5D-%5Bsums%5D&gclid=Cj0KCQiAsoycBhC6ARIsAPPbeLvitYEzBdYZUiIjVD6DfQhvBjckA4peckfGlr0NpnXnvs0dK2jXTLEaAiZoEALw_wcB

[x] Research on The Silva Method https://silvamethod.com/research

[xi] Vishen Lakiani’s Masterclass on The Silva Method https://www.mindvalley.com/ultramind?itm_source=storefront_w2.0&itm_campaign=sums_evergreen_evergreen_sums&otag=storefront_sums&itm_medium=email&itm_content=%5Bwatch_later%5D